Cheers for the help,guys. One more question.............what do you guy's drink before work-out? Cos i was told that Whey Protein stuff is better before rather than after the gym.

I'm having the Anadraulic State before my workout. It pumps you up for the workout. As for taking protein, you can have it an hour or so before your workout or even have it during, but be sure to have a full shake after your workout as that's when your muscles are looking for extra protein.
You don't grow in the gym, you grow at home when you are resting. Workout hard, with good form, and have good recovery and eat good foods. Don't have the workout of a lifetime then have pizza afterwards.

Cheers mate. I'd never eat a pizza after work out,but when i first took a football coaching course,my tutor told me that chocolate is good for the first hour afterwards cos you need to get sugar back into your body. Its known as the "Golden Hour" (i shit you not). Any thoughts on this?

After working out, I drink either Whey Protein shakes or something called EAS Advant Edge Carb Control, and I also eat a Protein Bar, also from EAS, after which I rest. I go to the YMCA, which is an awesome place, and kinda cheap because I'm only 17.

Cheers mate. I'd never eat a pizza after work out,but when i first took a football coaching course,my tutor told me that chocolate is good for the first hour afterwards cos you need to get sugar back into your body. Its known as the "Golden Hour" (i shit you not). Any thoughts on this?

He is right... Mens Health states that the best post workout drink is actually chocolate milk.

If I remember right, you do want to spike your insulin after working out because it helps rush nutrients to your muscles. Don't go overboard, but some sugar will help. Hell, the muscle tech has 75grams of sugar in a serving. If you are going to cheat a little, post workout is the time.

He is right... Mens Health states that the best post workout drink is actually chocolate milk.

If I remember right, you do want to spike your insulin after working out because it helps rush nutrients to your muscles. Don't go overboard, but some sugar will help. Hell, the muscle tech has 75grams of sugar in a serving. If you are going to cheat a little, post workout is the time.

Muscle Tech = bad. I was taking less then they said to take and it was still fucking with my system. Going to order a small tub of the stuff MW told me to get a couple of pages back though I think because creatine was definitely helping me but I would rather feel the same after then feel like shit for the rest of the night just to get a couple extra reps and hold some water weight.

I went to the supplement store the other day, walked out $300 odd poorer and got some Controlled Labs Green Magnitude Creatine, Inner Circle ISO protein, and Anadraulic State. My God that stuff is powerful. I've never had a kick like I did with the Anadraulic State, but be warned, it has the worst taste of any supplement I've ever had. It gave me a buzz after about 10 minutes.
The worst thing was last Sunday I took some protein just after dinner, just before my workout. I had the Anadraulic State then did my workout about 30 minutes later. During the night I had to go to the toilet, again and again, and after feeling crap when I got up I ended up having the day off work just so I could be close to the toilet. I'm OK now, and feel I had to much to eat before the workout so I have been careful since and had no ill effect.

How'd you like the Green Magnitude? I'm always promoting it in here and haven't received much feedback from anyone. Seeing that you are supplementing it (have for a long while or just started, I assume) I thought I'd ask.

Quote:

Originally Posted by CM_Jobber

Cheers for the help,guys. One more question.............what do you guy's drink before work-out? Cos i was told that Whey Protein stuff is better before rather than after the gym.

-I've used Muscle Pharm's Assault as my NO supplement and that worked alright.

-BSN's Nitric Oxide "No Xplode" wasn't quality because you need such a heavy dose of it for it to be effective. Plus, many people have grown immune to the supplement which is a tremendous waste of money.

-Gaspari Super Pump 250 was probably the best pre-workout supplement I've experimented with. Personally, I decided to stop using it because of being too jittery and pumped up for three hours. Sure, it's supposed to do that but Super Pump 250 was a little too extreme for me.

-Controlled Labs White Flood is a decent NO supplement for pre-workout. I find it more beneficial when doing endurance related exercises rather than pure strength exercises or activities related to increasing muscular hypertrophy.

I've stopped using the pre-workout helpers. Much more of a negative effect on me.

However, I do use intra-workout supplements. My personal favorite is Controlled Labs' Purple Wraath but I'm currently using IntraVol by MuscleTech right now and it's been working out great. Still not a fan of intra-workout products either. I'd rather just drink a monster/amp energy drink.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sticksy

Good stuff. I'm doing a degree in health and exercise science atm. I want to eventually get into physio although what i'm in atm is pretty interesting.

Good shit. I might be coming to you for advice/pointers/help in the future. Just getting my general education courses (math, science, english) out of the way these first two years then I'll be studying that field extensively.

Quote:

Originally Posted by austinrockera

He is right... Mens Health states that the best post workout drink is actually chocolate milk.

If I remember right, you do want to spike your insulin after working out because it helps rush nutrients to your muscles. Don't go overboard, but some sugar will help. Hell, the muscle tech has 75grams of sugar in a serving. If you are going to cheat a little, post workout is the time.

I actually recall reading that, too. Chocolate milk is awesome, especially as an alternative to whey protein if you don't have the funds. The calcium (major fat burning mineral) as well as other vitamins/minerals are also beneficial in their own right.

How'd you like the Green Magnitude? I'm always promoting it in here and haven't received much feedback from anyone. Seeing that you are supplementing it (have for a long while or just started, I assume) I thought I'd ask.

I've only been taking it for a week. It's has a very sweet taste which i am enjoying at the moment. My younger brother had been taking it for a while and he tells me I'll get sick of the taste. We'll wait and see.
As for it's effectiveness I'll have to wait and see. No problems so far, but I do find I'm getting up to go to the toilet in the middle of the night. I am drinking a lot of water when taking the creatine so i guess it's excess fluid.

Good shit. I might be coming to you for advice/pointers/help in the future. Just getting my general education courses (math, science, english) out of the way these first two years then I'll be studying that field extensively.

Yeah its a fair amount of fun. Obviously the education system is different here than there but most of the subject i'm doing are pretty interesting but hard

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rajah

No problems so far, but I do find I'm getting up to go to the toilet in the middle of the night.

Muscle Tech = bad. I was taking less then they said to take and it was still fucking with my system. Going to order a small tub of the stuff MW told me to get a couple of pages back though I think because creatine was definitely helping me but I would rather feel the same after then feel like shit for the rest of the night just to get a couple extra reps and hold some water weight.

I am starting to think about the Green Mag also... I'm not a good responder to creatine though. It tends to make me hold too much water, the majority in my midsection. I've tried regular mono, the walmart creatine (lots of sugar like cell tech), cell mass from bsn, and regular creatine ethyl ester that I'm using now. Controlled Labs makes good stuff from my experience. I like White Flood, and am currently using orange triad as my multivitamin. I've used purple wrath before also, and if not for the god awful taste and not mixing well at all, I'd still be using it.

As far as PreWO, about 1 hour before working out, I drink my whey or eat some lean meat if I don't want to drink my protein. About 15-20 min before WO, I take my prewo drink. I've tried alot, and try to switch it up as much as possible so I don't get used to it.

I've tried:

NOXplode - alot of caffeine and L-Arginine. If you aren't used to the caffeine, it gives you a heck of a kick. 1.5 scoops for me is all I need right now. When 2 scoops don't work, I will switch.

Super Pump - for me it was meh... 1 scoop didn't do much, 2 scoops gave me the shits. You want fear in the gym... 2 scoops of SP250 and working heavy squats followed by heavy leg press when you have the shits. That's fear!

White Flood - good stuff. Didn't give me the major kick that NOX did, but overall, its a good value and pretty quality stuff.

Fast Twitch - nothing too special. not a big kick, more of a slow energy that doesn't give out on you for a couple of hours. I might get a bottle of this in the future to give it a good testing.

L-Arginine & Lo Carb Monster - this is my "homemade" prewo supp. It works basically just as good as the others. I take 4grams of L-Arginine and slam a can of Monster (blue M) about 20 min before workout. If I need a bigger kick, I slam the XXL can.

What do you fellow bodybuilders to get that lift in your lower pecs? It's good to have huge upper pecs and a well built middle chest but if you don't have the lift / shape you could end up looking very off balance symmetry wise.

I do decline bench press and weighted dips but I want to vary things up as it's getting somewhat boring. Any ideas?